You chose 1973 as your baseline. Let me tell you what happened in 1973. The dollar fully floated after Nixon severed gold. The first Pell Grants were awarded. The HMO Act was signed. Your chart does not start before the crisis, Bernie. It starts at the scene of the crime. Healthcare up 35x because Medicare, CON laws, and the AMA cartel run medicine. Homes up 13x because zoning makes building illegal and the Fed prints. Rent up 15x because price controls and zoning strangle supply. Tuition up 23x because federal loans gave colleges a blank check. General prices rose 7x in that span. Everything government controls rose 13x to 35x. Everything it leaves alone got cheaper. You are not the prosecutor of this case. You are the defendant.

The receipts, in order. March 1973: Bretton Woods collapses and the dollar floats free of gold. It has lost 86% of its purchasing power since, per the BLS's own inflation calculator. December 1973: Nixon signs the HMO Act. 1974: Congress pushes Certificate of Need laws on the states, letting existing hospitals veto new competitors. Today government pays nearly half of every healthcare dollar, per CMS. 1973-74: the first Pell Grants are awarded. A 2015 New York Fed study found each dollar of subsidized student loans raises tuition by roughly 60 cents. Colleges capture the subsidy. Housing: Glaeser and Gyourko's research shows land-use regulation, not construction cost, drives prices in expensive metros. Where building is legal, homes stay affordable. General prices since 1973: up 7x. Bernie's four sectors: up 13x to 35x. Electronics and clothing, which no bureau manages: cheaper. Same year. Same cause. Same culprit. The evidence has been on the books for 53 years.